The actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster will receive this year’s Radcliffe Medal, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute announced today. The ceremony, traditionally held during Commencement week, will take place this year on May 9—a change attributed by a spokesman to the Institute’s academic calendar and the honorand’s availability. Foster will join past recipients including Sonia Sotomayor, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Melinda French Gates in receiving the Institute’s highest honor.
During a nearly five-decade career, Foster has received numerous accolades for her work, including Academy Awards for Best Actress in The Accused (1989) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Foster made her directorial debut in 1991 and has since directed films including Money Monster (2016) and television episodes of Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards. In addition to her work in film, Foster has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ youth. In 1994, she became the first major donor to support the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor, about a gay teenager who attempts suicide when his friends reject him over his sexuality. Following the film’s release, its creators launched The Trevor Project, a crisis intervention and suicide prevention service for LGBTQ+ youth. Foster made the largest donation in the organization’s history in 2007.
The May 9 program will feature a panel discussion on the representation of women in film, followed by a keynote conversation between Foster and Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin will then formally present the medal to Foster. Further event and registration details will be forthcoming in March.
